Are You Google Buzz Too?

When I login to my gmail account yesterday, a big screen pop up, wow, Google Buzz! Follow by its instruction, I learn that Google has add social-networking features into Gmail as it attempts to jump-start its social Web strategy. Actually they are marrying the Gmail Web interface with status updates and media-sharing technology in an attempt to convince the social media addicts of the world to spend more time on Google’s sites than on competitors like Facebook or Twitter, at the same time generating valuable data in the process.

Google Buzz is a new way to let users share updates, photos, videos, and start conversations about the things they find interesting. It shows up discreetly as a tab in Gmail, play nicely with other social media platforms and allows users to automatically follow/be followed by people within their existing email contact database.

Well, since more and more people and companies to start to use social networking sites like Linkedin, Facebook and Twitter to keep in touch with their friends, to communicate with their clients, to market the products or service on the net etc, big G is determined not to be left behind by the social-media revolution which is totally understandable.

If you are a Gmail user, you can now set your status within the service. Because it is integrating Buzz directly into the Gmail interface, you can link your Twitter, Flickr, Picasa, and Google Reader accounts to your Buzz streams to see information produced by friends on those networks, as well as updates posted directly to the Buzz stream.

With the new feature, Buzz users will be able to see all the content produced by those who they are following, but they’ll also be able to see content produced by people they aren’t following if their friends “liked” or commented on that content. Also, if they don’t wish to see that particular type of update again, they are be able to train that algorithm by clicking “Not interested” on these “recommended” status updates.

If you ever online for a length of time, you may already know – along the way, we spend the time learn and have to deal with an upsurge of ridiculous neologisms, having slowly come to terms with words like Tweet, Twitterati and Twitpocalypse, now we’re going to learn a new language of Buzzes, Buzzers and Buzzerific.

Personally, I think Google Buzz’s launch is a good opportunity for publishers, marketers and networks. Buzz may just be the catalyst for a general shift to an integrated Google platform, ecosystem, but in the meantime the disruption means that there is money to be made.

However, privacy concerns have been raised after it launched. According InfoWorld, “at issue is a feature that compiles a list of the Gmail contacts who users most frequently email or chat with. Buzz automatically starts following these people and makes the list public, meaning strangers can see who Buzz users have been in contact with.” Noted by the Silicon Alley Insider, “Imagine … a wife discovering that her husband emails and chats with an old girlfriend,” the Web site said. “Imagine a boss discovers a subordinate emails with executives at a competitor.”

Speaking of protect your privacy, the information that shows in the post of Google Buzz Has A Huge Privacy Flaw could help you.

I know, privacy concerns may not for these incredibly computer savvy, the patient beta testers, or Twitter and Facebook power users. It may not for those who are unconcerned with telling the world who they email the most. But for everyone else, it’s terrible. For the ‘normals’ (physicians or mental health professionals who have patients they email with, journalistes dealing with anonymous sources etc), when they encountering a new service, click “save and contine”, privacy does matter and it has to take into consideration seriously.

Google Buzz is built on email, which is a very different Internet application than a social network. Its faster and it puts relies and updates into your GMAIL as threads, which is BRILLIANT and a HUGE advantage over other platform. And it auto generates your network, which is MUCH better process than Facebook’s.

However, if you decided to join the buzz train and start to use Buzz, do remember to change your privacy settings. For better or for worse, it’s forced its way into your Gmail.